Making a Visual Novel Group

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dmasterxd
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Making a Visual Novel Group

#1 Post by dmasterxd »

Okay so I decided I want to make a Visual Novel group. But it will be a relaxed one. Relaxed meaning no deadlines, everyone works at their own pace and I won't pester you. I'd like to have a group meet up and ask how everything is coming along once every week just so we don't lose connection or anything but that's pretty much it. Also just let me know when you're dealing with personal life problems and don't plan on working on the game for a while. But I'm always active and so I'll respond to your messages as quickly as I can. Which believe me is pretty quick. Also everyone is allowed to join. Even if you only want to be an idea contributor and you'll still be considered a part of the team and listed in the credits.

As for our first project how does this sound:

Summary: A wish. The magnificent enormous tree standing in the center of Okaraka town is said to have the ability to grant a single wish to whoever manages to climb up to the top. Of course only a handful of people actually believe in this age old Urban legend. Sasaki Jiro is not one of those people. He's never believed it not even as a small child, now he's finally returning to his home and his opinion hasn't changed in the least.

Plagued by strange visions as he returns to his hometown for his final year of high school, Jiro's younger cousin, Inoue Sora somehow manages to get Jiro to join the Astronomy Club. Among the two cousins in the club are Fujimoto Shiro, Jiro's childhood friend, Nura Misaki, a mysterious loner, Chitose Akira, the energetic class president, Hasekura Hinako, a preppy seventh grader, and Sendo Yuichi, a perverted honor student. Eventually Jiro begins enjoying his time with the Astronomy Club but underneath all the happiness and playful comedy there are dark secrets lurking inside everyone's souls.

(I intend for this to be a "Nakige" just by the way).

Characters:

Sasaki Jiro- "I hate the world. I think it's a really crappy place. That's why I want to live my life to the fullest. I refuse to let the bastard win."

Slightly cynical and skeptical to the core. Jiro is the protagonist of the story. He enjoys messing around with his friends to get a reaction out of them, Sora and Shiro being among his favorite targets. However despite his usual attitude, he can be a generally nice guy when it counts.

Inoue Sora- "Will kissing Shiro really mean I can stay...Alright then, I'll do it!"

Naive and gullible, Sora is Jiro's cousin and the president of the Astrnomy Club. She's a very kind and polite girl who excels at cooking. She is a good leader and can keep Jiro in check despite usally falling for his jokes. However she has a tendency to sleepwalk quite frequently, always resulting in chaos. She also is immensely strong despite her gentle appearance.

Fujimoto Shiro- "You must wanna have both your arms broken, huh?"

Brash and short tempered, Shiro is Jiro's and Sora's childhood friend and granddaughter of the town's founders. Shiro can be easily aggravated especially by the likes of Jiro and Yuichi. She is a lover of all animals and an avid hater of the heat, often doing whatever it takes to avoid sweating.

Chitose Akira- "Hahaha! You guys are actually thought I was gonna pull my skirt down!

Upbeat and playful, Akira is the class representative. She loves to play around and as such she usually counters Jiro's teasing with some of her own. However she knows when to get serious about her job. She also has a tendency to accidentally say blunt things. Akira loves to eat and is frightened of birds.

Nura Misaki- "It's horrendous."

Cold and aloof, Misaki is a quiet girl on the Astrnomy Club. She prefers to be alone and is often eating her lunch on the school's roof. Like Akira, Misaki also has a tendency to be rather blunt, however in her case it is completely intentional. Misaki has a fondness for poetry and ketchup and hates being touched.

Hasekura Hinako- "Fuee~ I'm an adult!"

Proud and stubborn, Hinako is a rich middle school student. She is spoiled and has never been punished for anything. As a result she takes this as being treated as an adult and thus thinks of herself as such. For some reason she has a habit of saying "Fuee". She has a strong bond with Akira who see looks up to like a sister. She also is quite addicted to playing crane machines. Hinako loves stuffed animals and hates cats.

Sendo Yuichi- "Misaki, my dear. I can see your panties from here. It is truly a lovely angle."

Perverted and intelligent, Yuichi is at the top of the third year class. Despite his status of being an honor student as well as a pretty good athlete, he makes no attempt to hide his more indecent qualities. However, somehow he is always there for his freinds when it counts the most.

Inoue Yoshi- I LOVE YOU JIRO MY BOY!!!!!

Loud and hammy, Yoshi is the supervisor of the Astronomy Club. He makes the most out of every day by having as much fun as possible. He cares deeply for Jiro and Sora and is always ready to calm down when he knows they need it. He is completely oblivious to his terrible cooking and music skills.


Writers:
Here is what the writers will do. Depending on how many of us there are we split them up into routes accordingly. So if we only have five writers each one will be working on a different route. But if we have say ten, I'll split them up depending on strengths and weaknesses. And if you're not comfortable about doing a certain route, I'll swap you around with someone who is. Just let me know.

Artists
Artists we'll be split up into different sections.

Sprite Artist: Will need to make simply five sprites with at least three different poses and all the basic expressions (happy, sad, angry, jealous, flustered) All I ask is that you have the basics of anatomy down. Also if it's not too much trouble anime-style please.

CG Artists: Will need to make CG's for each route. A minimum of two for each will suffice, so that's at least ten in total.

Background Artist: You don't necessarily have to be an artist for this. As long as you can provide backgrounds somehow. But if you want to draw them you may do so.

Programmers
Basically just do your Ren'py thing. We'll need some a lot of choices so make menus. And if you ever feel like spicing it up, go ahead and use ATL or something. Some frequent use of the snowblossom effect would be appreciated.

Musicians
We'll need at least twelve songs to work with. Any of them can be either fully orchestrated or single instrument tracks. Also make sure to make some joyfully comedic sounding songs and some sad melancholy/pretty sounding sounds.

Editors
And last but most certainly not least editors. Anyone who is willing to edit and proofread the scenes. This includes editing out typos fixing grammar mistakes and letting the writers know anything that's out of place or doesn't make sense in a scene.

I plan to work as a writer. So if you're interested PM me. Or if you have question leave a reply. I welcome all to this new group because I believe that even if we're loose about this project, it'll undoubtedly be finished. Also we will be using discord to community with each other since I know some people can't use skype. You don't need a mic or anything, we can just use the chat room. If for some reason this is entirely impossible for you let me know and I'll make accommodations.

Something extra to note, I'm serious when I say I plan to finish this. I had actually already made a group like this before and everything was going well but sadly my computer broke and I didn't have my phone so once I finally came online again, the group had already disbanded. (Speaking of which if you were in the group before you are more than welcome to join again of course.) Not to mention I have been in two other groups where similar things happened. And it really pained me every time. But my point is, I had continued to work on this for the past three years despite of that. So stick with me until the end please and we'll get to see all our efforts come together. I don't let my projects die, I just don't.

Our team so far:

HarukaNami- Sora's Route

Skita- Shiro's Route

dmasterxd- Common Route, Hinako's Route, Kiseki Route

MusashiKorian- Editor

Circe2300- Editor

dragonkiller89- Editor

banannasquid- Character designer
Last edited by dmasterxd on Sun Mar 05, 2017 11:35 am, edited 2 times in total.

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indoneko
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Re: Making a Visual Novel Group

#2 Post by indoneko »

The word "Nakige" grabs my attention, but the wish-granting magical tree worries me (especially since you also use japanese setting for this story). This plot device has been overused in japanese VN (I can still remember the Sakura Tree in Da Capo series). How will you convince people that this project is not a "spiritual copy" of those games? (or is it, actually?)

Another thing that worries me is having too many writers. If you have ten writers and they are working in parallel, how do you make sure that the writing will be consistent across the different routes?
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Re: Making a Visual Novel Group

#3 Post by Zelan »

Both of indoneko's concern's are very valid. I was actually just going to comment about the number of writers; more writers means the workload can be spread out, but it also means that the characters may act differently from route to route.

dmasterxd
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Re: Making a Visual Novel Group

#4 Post by dmasterxd »

Yeah, I started working on this before I even knew of Da Capo. And that's the only one I know of with the wishing tree thing, so I assure you this is not a copy. I think everyone will be able to tell just by comparing and contrasting the characters.

As for the writers bit, yes that is why I want to have the group meetings. I can check out all of the other routes and make sure they still have the same writing style. It's not really hard to emulate mine. However, I still want their own voices in different routes and for them to come from different imaginations, which is why I decided to have each route belong to a different writer. I don't want to be this overbearing presence, especially since I'm in charge of the common route and one character route already.

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Re: Making a Visual Novel Group

#5 Post by banannasquid »

If youre relatively new to making VNs or have a smaller group, then I'd recomend starting with a smaller project at first and build it up if it works out, maybe stick to only one or two routes at first. Its alot more realistically achievable than a full length 40 hour masterpiece for amateurs like us imo. If youre going with a multiple writers, I think its a good idea to have a "writing department" leader too.


As for the art, it would probably be best to get at least 4 people to work on it (one person to do lineart, another to do colors, a BG artist and a CG artist) so you keep pressure off of them. One of them has to take an art director role and basically be in charge of the "art department".

The most important thing I have to say is that you should be a significant way into the story before recruiting any programmers or artists to work on the project, my last/current project had all the necessary people recruited and completely stalled out because the writer hadn't started writing.

The premise seems pretty nice, albeit a bit generic, though thats not a bad thing. I can help out with character designs/idea bouncing or something for now, im afraid i'm stuck in VN development purgatory right now lol
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Re: Making a Visual Novel Group

#6 Post by MusashiKorian »

I will offer my assistance in editing and helping with storyboarding if you need it. I use skype, teamspeak, discord, whatever you want I can get. :)


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dmasterxd
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Re: Making a Visual Novel Group

#7 Post by dmasterxd »

banannasquid wrote:If youre relatively new to making VNs or have a smaller group, then I'd recomend starting with a smaller project at first and build it up if it works out, maybe stick to only one or two routes at first. Its alot more realistically achievable than a full length 40 hour masterpiece for amateurs like us imo. If youre going with a multiple writers, I think its a good idea to have a "writing department" leader too.


As for the art, it would probably be best to get at least 4 people to work on it (one person to do lineart, another to do colors, a BG artist and a CG artist) so you keep pressure off of them. One of them has to take an art director role and basically be in charge of the "art department".

The most important thing I have to say is that you should be a significant way into the story before recruiting any programmers or artists to work on the project, my last/current project had all the necessary people recruited and completely stalled out because the writer hadn't started writing.

The premise seems pretty nice, albeit a bit generic, though thats not a bad thing. I can help out with character designs/idea bouncing or something for now, im afraid i'm stuck in VN development purgatory right now lol
Hmmm, it seems a lot of people don't understand what I was saying when I said I have been working on this for three years now...

I've already done my part so that's not an issue. And like I said I don't let my projects die, it's simply a matter of recruiting people who will stick by me to the end as well at this point. And I'm going to keep looking until I find them.

Also I have no intention of making this VN as long as something like Clannad. Only reason there are multiple routes is to cater to different character preferences (sorry I couldn't include an imouto though, haha).

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Re: Making a Visual Novel Group

#8 Post by banannasquid »

Hmmm, it seems a lot of people don't understand what I was saying when I said I have been working on this for three years now...

I've already done my part so that's not an issue. And like I said I don't let my projects die, it's simply a matter of recruiting people who will stick by me to the end as well at this point. And I'm going to keep looking until I find them.

Also I have no intention of making this VN as long as something like Clannad. Only reason there are multiple routes is to cater to different character preferences (sorry I couldn't include an imouto though, haha).


B-But imoutos are the best :(

I guess I wasnt clear, I meant to say that it would be better to get artists and stuff after the writing is underway so they have an idea of what theyre getting themselves into. They wouldnt have anything to do until the writing was started anyways

I dont think you ever said youve been working on this for a while, if thats the case, I'd like to join up for character designs and stuff for now. I just dont want to join another project that'll fizzle away and leave me with no project for a while
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Re: Making a Visual Novel Group

#9 Post by dmasterxd »

banannasquid wrote:
B-But imoutos are the best :(

I guess I wasnt clear, I meant to say that it would be better to get artists and stuff after the writing is underway so they have an idea of what theyre getting themselves into. They wouldnt have anything to do until the writing was started anyways

I dont think you ever said youve been working on this for a while, if thats the case, I'd like to join up for character designs and stuff for now. I just dont want to join another project that'll fizzle away and leave me with no project for a while
[/quote]

Not that I disagree, haha. But she would just end up contradicting Jiro's character is all. :P

I said it twice in my opening post. And I also said I wouldn't let this project just become nothing. I wouldn't be so adamant about saying that if I wasn't serious. But regardless, I would be glad to work with you. I'll send you the discord link. Also feel free to PM me in the future as I'll respond much faster that way.

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Re: Making a Visual Novel Group

#10 Post by dragonkiler89 »

i want to offer my assistance and test my skills as a writer so i would like to join this project.
your idea and setting has potential i think!

i mostly use facebook or skype

and i want to see my skills as a writer and programmer

also i really would like to know what genres is this project (like action horror or so..)

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